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Splitting a Soul~Chapter 9
“Ok, please tell me I wasn’t the only one that just saw Jack get flipped over the rail and swallowed whole by a giant turtle,” Aisling asked. “Nope, that is pretty much what just happened,” I said to her. I pulled my sword from my pocket and pointed it at the old man. “What are you thinking?!” “I don’t know what you’re so upset about. I’m only feeding my poor hungry pet,” the old man said. “Myrtle gets so upset when she doesn’t get her meals.” “Your pet is a giant turtle at the bottom of Niagara Falls,” Kimi noted, but the old man didn’t seem to mind. I had to think quick and put my training to good use. “Aisling, follow me down. Kimi, make sure he doesn’t move,” I told her. Kimi pulled her bow from one of her pockets and pulled the string back. An arrow made of pure fire appeared out of thin air and settled on the notch. “Don’t worry, he won’t go anywhere,” Kimi said, her line of sight right on the old man. Aisling and I ran down the stairs, trying to get as close to the water’s surface as possible. When we got down, we saw the turtle thrashing around creating waves all over the river. No matter how I looked at it, the turtle was too wild and I couldn’t get a clear shot at it at all. I wish I had brought Kimi down here instead of Aisling; at least she had a bow. “Don’t worry, I got this,” Aisling said and jumped the rail. She flew through the air and whipped out her ax, landed right on the turtle’s back. “I’m going to turn you into turtle soup!” Aisling brought her ax down on the turtle’s shell and it bounced off harmlessly. The ax almost flew back into Aisling’s face, probably just from the amount of force she put into her strike. Myrtle quickly shifted to the left and Aisling was knocked right off her feet. She began to roll forward on the turtle and barely managed to grab onto the edge of the turtle. Myrtle once again began to thrash around and I could see her breath as she shook. “Ash, help me!” Aisling called as she clung for dear life onto the edge of the turtle’s shell. “I’m on my way,” I called to her. My sword began to glow with a faint blue light and I leaped over the rail. The water rose up and met me as I landed on it and I rode the wave like I was a pro surfer. I reached the turtle in no time and launched myself onto the head of the turtle. “Aisling, hang on!” I balanced myself on Myrtle’s head and drove my sword right into the turtle’s head. It roared in anger and I was tossed off into the freezing cold water. I hadn’t noticed how cold it was before when I was controlling the water. Maybe the Water Elemental was being kind and somehow altered the water temperature. But what was even stranger was that a strike to the head should have killed Myrtle, but it didn’t. My sword was then pushed from Myrtle’s head and landed in the river. Without my sword, I had to swim for the turtle so at the minimum, I wouldn’t freeze to death. Myrtle let out another roar and a stream of ice shot out of her mouth and hit a cliff, forming more icicles. Jack was still alive and inside the turtle. I only had a moment to contemplate this, because one of the turtle’s large fins rose out of the water right under me and flung me into the air. I landed right on my back on one of the wooden walkways. “Ouch,” I said as I pulled some air into my lungs. When I looked up I saw a few flaming arrows being shot over the rail. Something was going on with Kimi and I ran up a few stairs, ignoring the pain. “Stay still,” Kimi urged as she fired more arrows at the old guy. Something about him seemed off however. He moved in kind of a stumbling fashion. It could best be described as falling with style. “Please excuse me if I don’t let you hit me with your arrows. They could hurt after all,” he said, but I had to kind of agree with him. I wouldn’t want to be hit with one of Kimi’s arrows either. The old guy then ducked under another arrow that went sailing over his head. “How about this, I let you hit me with an arrow and in return you help feed Myrtle.” “Is that turtle all you care about?” I argued. That turtle ate my best friend, who was being digested right now and this guy treated it like it was a box turtle. “Sure she is; as long as I feed her human souls, I can live forever,” the old man said. “Wait, I’ve heard about you. Your name is Styron, or Stearon, or Steering. Something like that,” I said, not remembering his name exactly, but I at least heard the story before, I think. “My name is Sciron!” he bellowed. “But you should be dead,” I commented. I only somewhat remembered the story from Mythology Class at camp, but Sciron was a bandit that fed people to his turtle, she wasn’t a monster or an immortal. “I should be, but there are ways to cheat death. Before I died I bound my dear Myrtle’s soul to myself so the Underworld couldn’t pull me away. We feel each other’s pain, but we can’t die as long as the other lives,” he boasted. “All I have to do is keep feeding her souls of the living and I can live as long as I want.” “Gotcha,” Kimi said as she fired another arrow that hit him right in the shoulder. It burned away part of shirt and jacket, as well as a bit of skin. But he didn’t seem fazed at all and just looked at the arrow. There was also a roar from down at the bottom of the falls. “That hurt young lady,” Sciron said in a dark tone that sent shivers down my spine. “I’m going to have to punish you for that.” He moved a lot quicker then I would have thought and grabbed Kimi by the wrist. Neither one of us had time to react as he spun around and flung her over the side. “Kimi!” I yelled as I ran to the edge. The turtle looked up and opened his mouth waiting for his next meal. “I got this!” Aisling yelled. Now that the turtle wasn’t thrashing around, Aisling jumped to her feet and gave Myrtle several quick jabs to the back of the head with her ax. Myrtle’s head lowered as she shook it around. Meanwhile Sciron behind me was yelling in pain, rubbing the back of his head. Kimi ended up landing right on the turtle’s head next to Aisling and was helped to her feet. The turtle on the other hand wasn’t amused and wanted his meal. I watched as her massive head began to slowly retract into her massive shell. Kimi and Aisling both looked at each other and ran for the edge of the turtle shell, but it was too slick and they couldn’t climb back up. Before long they would be forced into the water and Myrtle would have two more snacks. “Those stupid kids are going to hurt my poor Myrtle,” Sciron cried. All he seemed to care about was that stupid turtle that ate my friend. I got so mad that I wanted to feed him to that stupid turtle…which wasn’t a bad idea. “Why do you care about a stupid turtle?” I asked him. This served to anger Sciron as he shot daggers at me. I mean he literally shot daggers at me; he had them hiding behind his back and he started pulling them out of nowhere. “Stop calling my baby stupid!” Sciron yelled as he reached behind for another dagger, but he must have been out because he was grabbing at nothing. Good thing too because dodging daggers wasn’t as easy as it seemed; especially when my sword was still at the bottom of the river. “She is a precious gift from above…or below depending on your perspective. She is a monster after all.” “She definitely looks like one,” I joked. I took a few steps back and leaned over the rail. Myrtle’s head was almost completely inside her shell now. “She is pretty ugly for a turtle.” “She isn’t ugly either!” Sciron argued. He almost had steam rolling from his ears. I leaned a bit more over the edge and pretended to slip on some water. “Wow, that was close. I almost fell over,” I said. I was not an actor however and the line sounded so fake, even by my own standards. Sciron on the other hand didn’t seem to notice. “I can help with that,” I heard him say. I turned around when I heard his footsteps on the wooden walkway. When he was only a few feet away, he slipped on a patch of ice and went careening toward me. I made a quick step to the left and extended my foot, tripping him over the edge. “Breakfast!” I yelled down and Myrtle’s head popped out of her shell. Her mouth was open wide while Sciron flailed his arms around. “No you idiot, I’m not breakfast!” Sciron yelled and just like that he was in the monsters mouth. Myrtle’s mouth went snapping shut. Her mouth went bug-eyed for a second, like she was trying to swallow a rock that wouldn’t go down. She opened her mouth and Sciron was there, shaking his fist at her. “How dare you almost eat me. Do you have any idea what would have happened if you did?!” Myrtle made a few apologetic groans to her master as he yelled at her. I felt my sword reappear in my pocket and I pulled it out. It grew to full form and I pointed it at the water of Niagara Falls. A stream shot out and hit Myrtle’s open mouth. Her eyes went even wider and Sciron gargled water as it forced her way into her stomach. Just then all the water from Myrtle’s stomach to the falls became a pure stream of ice. Aisling then drove her ax into Myrtle’s head and Kimi fired an arrow right down each of Myrtle’s nostrials. Sciron and Myrtle both turned to golden dust. “We won,” Kimi said excitedly, not noticing that the turtle’s head had dissolved under her feet, causing her and Aisling to fall into the water. When more of the turtle dissolved, Jack could be seen falling for a second, but he froze the water under him to make a nice little iceberg. “So how often do you get eaten on these quests of yours?” Jack asked, trying to direction his ice island. Kimi and Aisling both swam up to the iceberg and climbed on, shivering a bit. “Well, maybe once every other quest,” I told him. “So I shouldn’t get eaten anymore?” he replied. “Only time will tell,” I said and we both laughed. “Laugh it up, just get me out of these freezing clothes!” Aisling yelled, shivering all over. Jack managed to get his iceberg to shore and we all climbed back up the walkway. Kimi and Aisling turned the heater way up and just relaxed. Jack and I just relaxed as he told me all about how he tried to freeze the inside of a turtle’s stomach and how he froze all the water I sent flying into the Turtle’s mouth. Before we got back on the road, Aisling even managed to get a new hat.